A woman in the US was overcome with emotion after a diver recovered the iPhone she lost in a river 15 months ago, which featured the last text messages she received from her late father.
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Erica Bennett's phone fell overboard while enjoying a float trip on the Edisto River in South Carolina in June 2018.
As the phone hit the water, her husband Jason, 49, jumped into the water in an attempt to retrieve the device, but despite the photographer's best efforts it was gone.
Personal trainer Erica, 39, was understandable heartbroken, more so as she knew she had lost the last text message she received from her father William Sikes.
The personal trainer's father had died from leukaemia aged 63, the same month she lost the phone, which housed his last birthday wish to her.
He penned: "Happy Birthday baby!! Hope you are having a great one!!"
The Charleston native said: "That was one of the things that hit me hard. I thought I would never be able to read those words again.
"All I remember is thinking of all the photos and texts I had just lost in the bottom of that river. Memories I thought I would never get back."
However, a year later the phone resurfaced when Michael Bennett, who is no relation to the couple, was scuba diving in the same river and saw a large rock in eight feet of murky water with a phone lanyard trailing behind it.
The YouTuber, 25, took the iPhone home with him, plugged it into a charger and the device turned on.
Since he did not know the iPhone's password, he removed the SIM card and inserted it into a different phone. He then was able to retrieve Erica's number by through her contacts and lucky for them both, she had kept the same number.
A complete stroke of luck, the scuba diver then contacted Erica on 22nd September telling her how he had found her phone and explained that he would return it to her the following day.
She said: "There were big waves of emotions. I felt really happy and relieved."
While the phone isn't completely 100%, Erica admitted she's just delighted to be reunited with her father's texts.
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"I have those memories back now," she said. "It's just a phone. But then again, it's not."
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